On Saturday 2nd December 2017 the Choir festival of Móðurmál groups took place in Gerðuberg. Sólveig Simha, the teacher from the French mother tongue groups, coordinated the project.
Children from nine groups took part and sang one to three songs in their language. Represented were the Czech, Filipino, French, Japanese, Lithuanian, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian and Thai groups. In the end, all children together sang two Icelandic Christmas songs.
The meeting was very well attended by children and their guardians and the milieu in the cultural centre Gerðuberg was exemplary.
Congratulations Móðurmál and thank you so much, everyone, who took part! ❤️
The Lithuanian Ministry of Education invited the principal of Lithuanian mother tongue school in Iceland “Three colours” Jurgita Milleriene to hold a lecture about the foundation of mother tongue school abroad.
There are numerous important things to keep in mind while establishing a mother tongue school and making it a successful working school. Jurgita shared some guidelines and talked about the good practice of Lithuanian mother tongue school in Iceland. Lithuanian mother tongue school “Three colours” is a very active, creative and innovative school that a lot of other schools here in Iceland and others abroad are looking at it as an example.
Monika Franciszka Sienkiewicz, the headmaster of the Polish school in Reykjavik, got an honourable mention for promoting Polish culture in Iceland in 27th Zygmunt Gloger Medal and Award Contest (Konkursu o Nagrodę i Medal Zygmunta Glogera).
Congratulations, dear Monika! 🎉 All of us who work with you know how precious your contribution to the Polish school and the Polish community in Reykjavík is.
Samfok –the Association of Parents of Compulsory School Children in Reykjavík–, together with Móðurmál –the Association on Bilingualism–, and individual mother tongue schools organize ten conferences about school matters with a focus on parents of foreign origin in the Greater Reykjavík Area. This school year 2017-18, ten conferences in the biggest languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian, Filippino, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, English, Russian) will be held.
Presentations and discussions will revolve around typical features of schools and leisure centres in Iceland, the collaboration of parents and schools, mother tongues and active bilingualism of children. The presentations will be in Icelandic and interpreted into the language of each conference.
The aim of the conferences is to inform parents and to create a platform to talk together about the school culture in Iceland and the interest, responsibility, and influence of parents on the study and well-being of their children. The conferences will be held at the time of the other tongue classes in Hólabrekkuskóli, Fellaskóli, and Álfhólsskóli on Saturdays and Sundays and take around 2,5 hrs.
All school parents from the Greater Reykjavík Area are welcome.
The project´s further partners and supporters are W.O.M.E.N. –the Association of Women of Foreign Origin, Heimili og skóli– the Association of Parents in Iceland, the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík, the Ministry of Welfare, and Kópavogur.
Móðurmál organised its 5th annual conference on 25th and 26th August 2017. This time, the main theme was the comparison of mother tongue instruction in Sweden, Canada/Alberta, and Iceland. Two professionals were invited from the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, Alberta, and one from the Mother Tongue Center in Lund, Sweden. Dr. Josephine Pallard and Dr. Trudie Aberdeen introduced the Albertan model of heritage language education, its structure, and accreditation process which enables the students of heritage language school to collect credits for their further university studies. Silvia Cordero introduced the Swedish practice in which mother tongue instruction is provided by a regional authority and mother tongue classes take place in schools after school hours.
The conference was preceded by a meeting with City and State representatives at the office of the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík, in which the experts from Edmonton and Lund shared their knowledge about their subsequent models of provision of mother tongue instruction to bilingual children, and the accreditation processes.
At the conference, mother tongue teachers of Móðurmál presented the good practice, research, and projects that took place in the past school year, and the richness and the quality of their work were evident. The conference was finished with a workshop on project based heritage language teaching, given by Dr. Aberdeen. Parallelly with the conference, two author reading sessions took place. The first one was organized by the society Czech in Iceland who invited the author of children´s historical adventure books Veronika Válková. The second session took place at the end of the conference and Abenda Darko from the Ghanaian Móðurmál group read from her new book Folktales from Ghana.
Among guests were mother tongue teachers, school teachers, employees of the City of Reykjavík and researchers from the University of Iceland. The conference took place in Veröld, the house of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, in collaboration with Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Multicultural Understanding; wonderful refreshments were provided by Nice Catering Service.
The annual Móðurmál conference not only provides further professional training to teachers and creates a platform for meetings and discussions of interested participants from different professional backgrounds, but it also gives an excellent opportunity to community leaders, teachers, and artists to present their work.
Móðurmál thanks to the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, the Association of Friends of the Polish School in Reykjavík, Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, and the Department of Education and Youth of the City of Reykjavík for the financial and other support.
Following visits and discussions of representatives of Móðurmál and the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in fall 2015 and 2016, spring 2017, and summer 2017, the two organisations concluded that formal collaboration would strengthen and profit them on many levels.
During the 5th annual conference of Móðurmál, two representatives of IHLA handed over a formal letter from the chair of IHLA Ms Antonella Cortese to the chair of Móðurmál, Ms Renata Emilsson Peskova, that confirmed that the two associations of mother tongue/heritage language school became sister organisations.
Móðurmál and IHLA share common goals and they work towards the same ends, that is to support and promote mother tongues/heritage languages of plurilingual children, and to assist teachers, schools, and families in their efforts to sustain and develop mother tongue/heritage language learning and instruction.
The formal collaboration started with the exchange of expertise and experience of board members and coordinators, but it will also, not less importantly, take place on the individual level, among teachers, groups, between children and communities. The cooperation will continue next spring when a representative of the Filipino group “Inangwika” visits the Filipino community in Edmonton in spring 2018, to plan for further collaboration and strategic steps, and to give a professional development (PD) session for IHLA teachers.
Bókasafnið Móðurmáls samanstendur af safnkosti (bækur, tímarit, dvd, cd, hljóðbækur o.fl.) ýmsra móðurmálsskóla innan Móðurmáls. Bækur eru aðallega barna- og unglingabækur, þó sumir móðurmálsskólar eigi líka bækur fyrir fullorðna, kennsluefni og annað fræðsluefni.
Eins og staðan er í dag, hefur bókasafnið ekki einn sama stað. Hver og einn skóli geymir sér um að útvega sjálfur stað fyrir sitt efni. Móðurmál á einnig sinn safnkost, eru það aðallega barnabækur sem samtökunum hefur verið gefið og eru þær ekki bundnar við ákveðið tungumál. Móðurmál getur því átt bækur á spænsku líkt og spænski móðurmálshópurinn.
Markmið bókasafns Móðurmáls er að gera safnkostinn sýnilegan og auka aðgengi fyrir börn af erlendum uppruna, t.d. með skráningu í landskerfi bókasafna Gegni. Með því býðst börnum af erlendum upppruna tækifæri á að fá bækur lánaðar með millisafnaláni í skólann sinn. Þetta er í augnablikinu bara bundið við Reykjavík, en við stefnum að því að reyna að veita öllum börnum sama tækifæri. Þau geta því bætt lestarfærni sína og markmiðið er í samræmi við þjóðarsáttmála um læsi.
Byrjað var að skrá safnkostinn í sjálfboðavinnu í desember 2016. Móðurmál er heppið að hafa sjálfboðaliða innan samtakanna sem er jafnframt með skrásetjararéttindi. Áætlað er að safnkosturinn sé um 8000 þúsund eintök og bætist jafnt og þétt í hann. Um miðjan ágúst 2017 var búið að skrá 1650 titla eða um 1830 eintök. Safnkosturinn er allur skráður undir nafni Móðurmáls og er hægt að skoða hann með því að fara inn á leitir.is og nota leitarorðið MODPG.
Móðurmál leitar nú að samastað fyrir safnkostinn þar sem öll tungumál væru aðgengileg á einu stað bæði fyrir börn og fullorðna.
Móðurmál has a new board! 🎉 Congratulations, new members Magdalena and Dyah, and many thanks for all your help in the past year, Rósa Björg and Karim.
Renata Emilsson Peskova, chair, Czech group
Magdalena Elísabet Andrèsdòttir, vice-chair, Polish group
Lovísa Sha Mi, treasurer, Chinese group
Dyah Anggraini Choliqsdòttir, secretary, Indonesian group
Lyudmila Zadorozhnya, board member, Russian group
Móðurmál had an extra meeting in the new office in Háaleitisbraut 13, that it shares with Samfok –Association of School Children´s Parents in Reykjavík–. Birgitta, the chair, attended the meeting to discuss the common project Allir með! and further collaboration. Thank you Samfok for a great place to be! ❤️
Móðumál would like to thank its partners and supporters in 2016/2017, in particular the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík and the Ministry of Welfare for their financial support, Fellaskóli, Hólabrekkuskóli, Landakotsskóli, Myllubakkaskóli, Álfhólsskóli, Kampur, Neskirkja, the City Library and the libraries in Kópavogur and Hafnarfjörður for housing mother tongue classes, Samfok, and our international partners, in particular IHLA –International and Heritage Language Association– for rich and fruitful cooperation.
Have a good, sunny, restful holiday, everyone, and see you at the beginning of the new school year 2017/2018
